How many cities are there in Chaoshan?

Chaoshan refers to Chaoshan in a narrow sense and refers to the eight ancient towns, namely: Chao'an, Chaoyang, Chenghai, Puning, Jieyang, Raoping, Huilai and Nan'ao. From the founding of New China to the "Greater Shantou" era in which Chaoshan lived in the 1990s, the Chaoshan area began to be centered on Shantou City, with Chaozhou Prefecture as the Chaozhou Cultural Center, under which Chaoyang, Puning, Jieyang, and Chao'an were mainly established. The nine counties of , Raoping, Huilai, Jiexi, Chenghai and Nan'ao are the "nine cities" in the new era.

Chaoshan is a famous national historical and cultural city, the Asian Jade Capital, a famous Chinese medicine city, and an industrial base for textiles, hardware, stainless steel, and daily ceramics. Shantou’s 11 Taobao towns rank first in Guangdong. Since the Song Dynasty, it has been known as "a famous state in the mountains and seas, a state in the south, and a seaside state". The famous contemporary writer Lao She wrote a poem, "I long for the autumn of Chaoshan for decades". Chaoshan is a famous tourist destination, the hometown of famous tea, the hometown of gourmet food, the hometown of citrus queens, banana tangerines, green plums, green olives, bamboo shoots, lychees, and Chaozhou cuisine. The dish is the backbone and representative of Cantonese cuisine.